American Cinematographer - January 2001 - 64

You

always speed the action by
skipping whatever you do not want,

(Zhang
Ziyi) and the

Jen Yu

long-haired
bandit Lo

but it's difficult to slow action down

(Chang

without

Chen)
consummate

their

can

extensive

effects

work."

Because of Pau's need to

employ
alternating camera speeds, the use of
flicker-free lighting was essential. He
also needed the ability to easily
augment his lighting to work at
anywhere from 21 fps to 100 fps.
Some of the film's most lyrical

passion in

the outlaw's

desert hideout.

action

forest

occurs

within the bamboo

accurately, on the
tips of the bamboo trees. As the
drama unfolds, Li Mu Bai challenges
Jen Yu to give up her illegitimate
ways and become his pupil, while
chasing her into the towering forest.
Finally, the pair face off and trade
blows while balancing on a bowed
-

or, more

very

chase, the

seemingly flies
trailing the two
figures from above as they bound
across the city. "Ang explained that he
wanted a poetic, balletic tone for that
camera

the action,

over

scene," Pau recalls. "He had
of the

a

dream

flying over the action,
seeing the two people like fish swim¬
ming through water."
The extraordinary chase was
done entirely with wires after digital
techniques proved too expensive.
The camera was flown very close to
the two performers with the use of a
camera

very

day
frustrating!"
Undercranking the camera in
such scenes was important not only
to add apparent speed, but also extra
drama. "My experience with action
movies told me that we not only had
to cover scenes at various speeds, but
[we also had] to do speed changes
at a

time. It

one

was

within certain shots to

accentuate

the

emotion of specific

offers. "Human
the kinds of

movements," Pau
beings cannot make

movements

that would

often look best. In this scene,

mounted atop a

example, the two performers were
trying to make long strides across the
rooftops, but they could not physi¬
cally make the steps fast enough.

10' platform, which
Pau exceptional flexibility to
float over the 12'-high rooftops and
still give the actors plenty of clear¬
ance

under the lens. The duo

then

suspended from

construction

pair

over

crane

were

a much taller
that "flew" the

the cityscape in

while Pau and his

camera

wide arc
gave chase.
a

"To shoot the sequence, we
had

to

light up almost one square
city," Pau reports, smiling

mile of the

with disbelief. "We had

trial

cranes,

with
us

to

two

indus¬

each supporting two

18Ks, and another

equipped
lighting had to allow
backlight the action from two

a

crane

12K. Our

directions because

we

didn't know

exactly where we'd be going. It was
such a large area to cover, especially
with a single-source moonlight
January 2001

only pre-plan

small sections of the action,

34' crane/Power Pod combination

gave

62

effect. We could

Therefore,

we

for

often did manual

speed changes between each step to
quicken their movements, enhancing
the action without it feeling obvious."
For these types of scenes, Pau
also experimented with digital speed
changes in post. After dropping
frames, he created mini-morphs
between the remaining images to
alleviate any resulting jerkiness.
"That adds just a bit of motion blur,
which makes the effect work. But if

designing a shot for a digital
speed change, it's also important to

you are

shoot it at the slowest frame

which your

rate at

subject should appear -
50 fps, 100 fps, whatever is necessary.

bamboo stalk

some

100' off the

ground. Lee wanted the scene to have
a
cloudy, mystical feel, but the
production encountered varying
weather
cloudy, sunny and rainy
throughout this 12-day portion of
the shoot. Shooting proceeded, with
Chow and Ziyi securely wired to help
them perform their high-flying feats,
while Pau and his crew again relied
on their crane/Power Pod assembly,
this time with the rig mounted to the
top of an industrial crane.
"Ang explained this scene in
terms of the relationship growing
-

-

between Li Mu Bai and Jen," Pau says.
"He has feelings for the girl but is

holding them back. He chases her
into the bamboo, hiding within the
leaves and then revealing himself. At
the

same

time, she is confused

because she
trusts

cannot

decide if she

him.

"Well, this theory of the drama

interesting, but we then had to
figure out what we were going to
shoot for the next 12 days!" Pau
continues. "There was no description
of the action in the script! As we shot,
though, the scene became something

was

else:

a

demonstration of Mu Bai's

composure,
tries to fight

his coolness as the girl
him. That quality comes
Continued

on

page

66
American Cinematographer - January 2001

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2001
